"This is going to be so awkward," I groaned, tapping my foot impatiently on the concrete pathway in front of the Rossi dorm building as we waited for our parents to show up.

"It might not be as bad as you're making it out to be," Trey replied. I gave him a look and he pursed his lips. "Ok, maybe it will. But it's not like we can do anything about it," he said.

"I don't understand why my father can't just disappear like he always does," I said.

"I thought you guys were getting along?" he asked.

"We are," I answered hastily.

"Then why the big deal?" he asked.

"Well, Trey, you don't think it will be awkard making out with the danger of having your parents walk in on us?" I asked.

"Make out? Why would we do that?" Trey asked back, teasingly. I rolled my eyes at him.

"It won't be that bad, Caley. It might be kind of nice. You'll actually get to spend Christmas with your father this year," he said. I frowned, but kept silence.

I was really only partially upset about my father coming to stay with Trey and his family. It would be difficult to sneak around with another adult in the house. But when I relayed the fact that my father would be spending the holidays with Trey's family to Elijah, he said it was the perfect opportunity for me to gain entry into the Order. I hadn't realized it, but I guess the only reason my father was actually staying with Trey's family over the holidays was so that he could do Order work. This meant that I could catch him in the process and demand that I be initiated. It was perfect.

We heard the chatter of two voices and looked up to see Natalia and Christopher appear. They both beamed when their eyes fell on us. Natalia held her arms out, a wide grin on her lips. Trey moved forward to hug her, but she walked up to me instead.

"Oh, I see how it is. I guess I've been replaced," Trey said as Natalia hugged me. I smirked at him and Natalia chuckled.

"Well, son. Look what you have to compete against," Christopher said.

"My parents care so much," Trey huffed. Natalia laughed and pulled away, tucking my hair behind my ears.

"I swear, you get more and more beautiful every time I see you," Natalia said.

"You always say that," I answered.

"Because it's true," she said.

"I think Mom has a bigger crush on Caley than I do," Trey said. Natalia rolled her eyes and turned to her eldest son.

"Have you been working out?" she asked, raising an eyebrow skeptically. Trey's cheeks flushed slightly and Christopher chuckled.

"Mom," Trey grumbled.

"Doesn't he look bigger?" Natalia asked Christopher, ignoring her son's comment. Christopher reached out and grabbed Trey's bicep, squeezing it.

"Oh, definitely. He's definitely been working out," he said.

"Dad! What the hell, guys?!" Trey exclaimed. Natalia swiftly smacked him over the head.

"Watch your language, young man," she said. Trey glared at her and mumbled something inaudibly under his breath. I laughed, enjoying the scene very much.

"Caley, your father will meet us at our place. So you'll be Transporting with us," she said.

"Oh, I can Transport myself," I said. Then I clamped a hand over my mouth as they all looked at me confused. We hadn't learned Transport in our Spells class yet.

Shit.

"How?" Trey asked, crossing his arms over his chest. I tried to feign nonchalance.

"Oh, you know. I like to skip ahead in the lessons," I said.

"But Transport is pretty difficult magic. How did you teach it to yourself?" Christopher asked. I shrugged.

"By practicing. A lot," I said.

"Caley, sometimes doing advanced magic on your own can be dangerous. You should really wait until the professors teach you," Natalia said. I bit my lip, cursing myself internally for slipping up. Now they were suspicious.

"I know. I'll try to restrain myself. I guess I'm just impatient," I said.

"Just like your mother," Natalia replied. I raised my eyebrows. "She skipped ahead, too. She was just as eager to gain magical knowledge as you are," she said.

That, and she was learning everything at an accelerated pace with the dark side, just like I was.

"We should get going, then," Christopher said. We all agreed. Trey took a hold of his mother's arm and we all Transported to their house in New York. We walked up the walk way to the large white house. When I stepped inside, I breathed a sigh of relief. I felt like I was at home again.

"All right, so we decided we're going out to eat tonight," Christopher said.

"We found this amazing Italian place and we wanted to try it," Natalia added.

"Sounds good," I said. Trey nodded.

"Dress nice. It's fancy," Christopher said. Trey groaned. Natalia smirked.

"Caley, I've laid out a few dresses for you in your room. Feel free to pick whichever," Natalia told me.

"Thanks, Natalia," I said with a smile. She patted my cheek and then the two left to give us some space. I turned towards Trey who looked at me with his glittering eyes.

"Can I steal your parents?" I asked him. He laughed.

"Then they would be both our parents and that wouldn't be too good for our relationship," he pointed out.

"Hmm. This is true. I'll just have to convince them to disown you and adopt me," I said. Trey rolled his eyes and shook his head. He reached out and took my hand and we went upstairs. Cole was still at school; he wasn't on break yet.

"We have four weeks off," I said.

"It's awesome. We only got two and half weeks off in high school," Trey said.

"What are we going to do for four weeks, though?" I asked.

"I can think of some things," he replied, a glint in his eye. I felt my cheeks fill with color and turned my face away, making him laugh.

"I actually wanted to ask you a question," Trey said, pulling me down onto the bed next to him.

"What?" I asked.

"When did you have time to learn how to Transport?" he asked. I shrugged.

"Over the summer when I didn't have anything else to do," I replied.

This wasn't a complete lie. I didn't have anything to do and I did learn it over the summer. I just learned it over the summer because of Elijah. I decided I would leave that part out, though.

"I feel like you know a lot more magic than all of us," he said.

"I honestly don't know that much," I said.

This wasn't a complete lie, either. According to Elijah, I didn't know that much magic. In comparison to Elijah and Gerrard and my father, I didn't know that much. But I guess in comparison to Trey and Abbey and Lance I did know that much. Again, specification wasn't necessary.

Trey looked at me, his eyes reading every feature of my face. I tried to mask any emoiton on my face that would show the guilt that was creeping up my neck. I saw something flash through his eyes and wondered what it was. He covered it up quickly, though, smiling at me and brushing my hair back behind my ears. He leaned in and kissed my lips gently, but I could feel that there was tension in it.

                                                                  ~~~~~~~~~~~

                                                                   Trey's POV

I looked at Caley, trying to read her facial expression and her eyes. They had once been so easy to read and discern, but now, I felt like she was closed off. Her eyes were blank and her face showed no emotion.

I tried not to be distracted by her incredibly beauty and instead try to find something, anything, that let me read into what she was thinking. Because what she was telling me was not the truth. I could tell that much. Her answers were too short and non-chalant to be completely honest. She was completely thrown off when Mom and Dad asked her how she knew how to Transport. Somehow, I didn't buy that she had taught herself over the summer.

But at the same time, she did say last year that she was practising magic beyond what we were taught in school. But everyone was at the time. No one wanted to wait until class to learn how to turn the lights on magically. This was different, though. This was advanced magic. And I had a feeling that she knew a lot more than just Transport.

Whenever I would be around her, I could feel the power resonating off of her. Her mind was completely closed off all the time and I wondered how she learned to put her walls up so strongly. Professor Lucia had only taught me how to close my mind off, but I found even that difficult. I knew how to block spells, but that was about it.

If what he said was true and that there was a war on magic approaching, then I was not ready at all. How could I be a leader in the war if I couldn't even Transport? I was weak. Very, very weak. And what was worse was that I felt like Caley wasn't. She has a strength to her, a power. But she's good at hiding it. Could it be that she knew about the war, too? Could it be that her father is training her, too?

No, he can't be. Until recently, Caley hadn't even been getting along with her father. Unless all of it was a charade.

I groaned and sighed internally. Doubting my girlfriend felt wrong, like I shouldn't have been thinking these things about her. But even though we had confessed our love for each other and our relationship was stronger than ever, I felt like at the same time, it wasn't. I felt like there was this barrier between us. I felt like I knew Caley, but I didn't.

Something in Caley's eyes shifted. I could see her trying to read my thoughts as I tried to read hers. If she knew how to read minds, she wasn't on me. I knew the presence of another's mind when I felt it. She wasn't intruding. Or maybe she didn't know how.

I decided to put my doubt to rest and instead focus on the four weeks I would get to spend with her. During the school year, we were all too busy with classes. And in addition to my regular classes, I had the lessons with Professor Lucia, which took up quite a bit of time. I also had to work out and keep my endurance and strength up. Professor Lucia kept saying he would begin teaching me more difficult magic, but until now, this hadn't happened.

I knew the real reason Caley's father decided to stay at our place for the holidays. He had told me at my last lesson that there was something very important he needed to talk to me and my parents about. He told me he would introduce me to others that were involved with the war. I had no idea how he would do this with Caley around. Maybe he would tell her, too. Who knew?

I reached out and tucked a curly strand of Caley's blonde hair behind her ear. Then I leaned forward and kissed her, feeling the familiar electrical buzz well up around me. She responded eagerly, but  I could feel a slight hesitation in it. We were both hiding things from each other and if we didn't tell each other soon, it would ruin our relationship forever.

                                                                  End of Trey's POV

                                                                    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"Remember when you and Katerina first met?" Natalia asked, sipping a glass of red wine.

We had just gotten back from dinner. Natalia put Cole to bed and me, Trey, Natalia, Christopher, and my father were all sitting in the large family room just chatting. Christopher, Natalia, and my father were all drinking wine. Trey and I had cups of hot chocolate and were sitting huddled on one of the couches. I had my legs on Trey's lap and he had his arms resting on them. It was comfortable, nice. As if nothing was wrong in the world.

"I was cocky and full of myself and she was stubborn," Dad said.

I listened, completely alert. I had never heard my father talk about my mother. I listened for any sound of regret and sorrow in his voice. But at the moment, it was nostalgic.

"I remember her being so frustrated with you because you would always make it a point to single her out in the lunchroom or classroom or hallways and tell her that she needed to stop fighting her feelings for you," Natalia giggled.

"I remember you concoting plans on how to win her over," Christopher said.

"You always told me how I was worthless and wasting my time," Dad said, a smile on his face.

"But you ended up winning her over," Natalia said.

"How did you do it again?" Christopher asked.

I pulled my legs from Trey's lap and sat facing forward so I could see my father's facial expression. I felt Trey's eyes linger on my face before turning to look at him, as well.

"I had somehow convinced her to go to the Yellow Moon dance with me, homecoming. I said something stupid to her and she got angry and walked out of the ballroom. I went after her and we saw the moon from outside. When the ground started shaking, she fell because of her heels. I shielded her, making sure nothing would happen to her. I remember the look in her eyes. She had been so scared. So I told her I would make sure nothing would happen to her. Ever," he recounted, his eyes glazing over as he reminisced.

I felt my heart tighten and a lump rise in my throat. I forced myself not to lose myself to the sudden anger that bubbled up inside of me. I tried hard to control my emotions so that I wouldn't give anything away.

Wouldn't let anything happen to her? Ever? It was his fault she was dead! Some promise that was. Broken a few years later.

I saw my father's eyes flit towards me and our gazes locked, blue on blue.

"I sometimes wonder what life would have been like if she was still alive," Natalia said sadly.

I saw my father swallow and a pained look appear in his eyes. I took the expression to be guilt. He felt responsible for her death. It was his fault we would never know what life would have been like if she were still alive. It was his fault I would never know what my life would have been like if she were still here, his fault that I would never be able to trust him again.

"I think maybe its time to go to sleep," Christopher said, noticing the looks on mine and my father's faces. Natalia glanced up and noted this, too. She blinked a few times, as if coming out of a reverie. She smoothed out her skirt and nodded.

"I think that's a good idea," she agreed.

We brought our dishes into the kitchen and deposited them in the sink before bidding good night to each other. I followed Trey up the back staircase to where our rooms were. Natalia, Christopher and my father went up the main staircase to where their rooms were. I made to go into my room, just wanting to go to sleep and put my aching mind to rest, but Trey pulled me back, stopping me. I looked down at my feet, refusing to meet his eyes. I was tired and I didn't think I could hide my emotions at the moment.

"Are you all right?" he asked.

"I don't want to talk about it," I mumbled.

"Caley..." he said, tapping my chin and forcing me to look into his multicolored eyes.

"I hate that he won't just admit that it was his fault," I said.

"How do you know that it was?" he asked. I bit my lip, cursing myself again for slipping up.

"Because he left us. If he hadn't left..." I trailed off.

"She still would have died. Her illness was terminal," he said.

"She wouldn't have hurt as much as she did," I snapped. Trey's eyes softened and he pulled me close in an embrace.

"Holding a grudge isn't going to bring her back," he whispered.

But fighting for the thing he left her because of would make sure she didn't die in vain.

I pulled away from him.

"I'm tired. I want to sleep," I said.

He nodded and leaned forward, kissing my forehead before retreating into his room. I went into my own room and shut the door behind me. I went into the bathroom to change into my pajamas and locked the door. Sliding down onto the floor, I felt an intense sadness fall over me.

"He said he would make sure nothing happened to you. But he broke his promise, Mom. He broke it and now you're gone," I said into the emptiness in front of me. "I wish you were here to tell me if what I'm doing is right," I whispered.

After a few long moments, I got up and changed. I washed my face and tied my hair up and then went back into my room. I got into the bed and whispered Lumina Non to make the lights go out. Pulling the covers up over my head, I waited for sleep to consume me. But sleep wouldn't come. After about an hour of tossing and turning, I threw the covers off and I tip-toed out of my room and slipped into Trey's. I crawled onto his bed, trying not to wake him. But he was already awake.

"Hey," he whispered, lifting the covers so I could sidle up next to him.

"I didn't want to be alone," I whispered back.

"You're not. Not when I'm around," he replied, wrapping an arm around my waist and pulling me closer to him. We lay in silence for a long while before I heard the sound of Trey's steady breathing. He was asleep.

I looked out the window at the black night sky that was visible from behind his curtains. Lying to Trey and keeping all of my secrets locked up was proving to be more difficult than I thought. I hadn't realized how exhausting it would be to cover up my double agent status. I was afraid he would see right through me soon. But I couldn't stand the thought of pushing him away. I needed the comfort he provided. I needed his subtle way of understanding when I needed to be alone. I needed him.

I turned my head and faced his sleeping figure. I leaned forward and kissed the tip of his nose.

"I'm sorry, Trey," I whispered, although I knew he couldn't hear me. Then I nestled my face in his chest and let sleep finally take me away.

____________________________________________________________________

A/N: HI EVERYONE! Remember me? Remember this story?!

First off, I'd like to apologize for being an incredible loser and not updating this story. I've said it time and time again that I like taking my time with these chapters and making them as meaningful as possible to the story. This chapter was important because we see that Caley's father really did love her mother. Also, we start to see the guilt that both Caley and Trey feel because of their secrets that they can't tell due to the war.

Anyway, I promise to try and update this story more often. School is over, so my creative abilities can be put to use again.

Please vote if you're still with me!

XOXO